Perhaps no movie has better dramatized the interplay of ambition, corruption, and disappointment in America than On the Waterfront, best captured in the closing “I could’ve been a contender” speech given by Marlon Brando’s character Terry Malloy. A gripping tale about organized crime and dockworkers in New Jersey, it is justifiably remembered today as one of the greatest movies of the twentieth century.
This film about internecine power struggles and thwarted ambition had its share of big personalities involved in its making, among them Brando, Elia Kazan, playwright Arthur Miller, screenwriter Schulberg, producer Sam Spiegel, composer Leonard Bernstein, Marilyn Monroe, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Montgomery, Grace Kelly, Aaron Copland, and more. What happened among them, let alone the dramas that were unfolding in their personal lives when they were off set, ironically recalls WHAT Michael Corleone says in one of On the Waterfront’s most celebrated descendants, The Godfather: “It’s not personal. It’s strictly business.”
But, of course, it’s always intensely personal—as this fascinating narrative shows. From creative clashes to the challenges of filming on the Hoboken waterfront to the spectre of anticommunist paranoia that shadowed the movie’s creation and reception, this is a revealing look at the making of a genuine cinematic classic.
